Student Travel marketing analysis

Résumé du document

New entrants into the Irish Student Travel market wish to undertake research as to the wants and needs of Irish students relating to weekend breaks.
Main question:
How to advertise each destination to its maximum capacity?
E.g. What attributes are matched to different cities throughout Europe?
The Irish student travel market is huge. In the 4th Quarter of 2003, there were approximately 196,700 students in Third level education between the ages of 18 and 24 alone.

Extraits

[...] Two samples that are most similar to each other join together and the process repeats itself Nonhierarchical Clustering Procedures Nonhierarchical clustering is partitioning of the sample. Each cluster has a seed point and all objects within a prescribed distance are included in that cluster. [...]

[...] MDS Analysis Transformation Scatterplot This is a “smoothed” version of the Scatterplot of Nonlinear Fit; to ensure a monotonic curve We are looking to have no, or few, horizontal steps which would indicate a very good fit In our plot there are 2 big horizontal steps This is further indication that our output is not a good fit. However since there are only 2 such steps, it indicates an acceptable level of fit Recomendations Recommendations Cluster The Party Animal Recommended cities: Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest and Edinburgh Due to following attributes: Cheap day to day costs Good Nightlife Relaxed attitude towards drug culture Cluster The Party Animal Product: Group packages for between 2 and 50 people Target: student classes, student societies, student sports teams etc Low – cost focus on flights / accommodation in this cluster All in one deal to aid in the organization of large groups Price: Prague and Budapest have very low day to day costs Lower package price than Amsterdam or Edinburgh but more expensive flights may counteract this offer Budget accommodation with good facilities and a central location will be targeted for this group Cluster The Party Animal Promotion: Amount of advertising in each college will depend upon student population of each Posters, Flyers, table tops etc Events could be sponsored at rag week Student nights could be sponsored provided with competitions and related prices to increase awareness of offerings Possibility to get advertisements on student intranets in various courses? [...]

[...] less stress promotion element Will receive least amount of marketing effort as it is hard to change customer perceptions of products / places Promotion should be reviewed after 6 months to a year to see if it made an impact upon the cluster General Recommendations Product: Began with 9 cities that were identified by focus group as being the most popular student destinations in Europe Hope to introduce additional European cities and further worldwide destinations As 55% of Irish students want to travel further than Europe before they finish their college education (www.cso.ie) General Recommendations Price: Aim to offer cheaper rate or at least equal competitors offer Ways to achieve this are: Pre-negotiated deals with a number of airline and accommodation service providers Bulk buying strategy General Recommendations Place: Sales mainly dealt with over the internet Easy access home page and easy to understand booking process There will also be a physical operation running in a city centre location This is close to a large selection of inner city colleges Future options in opening another may be considered in cities like Cork or Galway if needed in the future However we would be trying to contain main focus to the internet General Recommendations Promotion: A number of campaigns held in colleges around Ireland on decided campuses Guerrilla Marketing which includes all sorts of advertising means e.g. [...]

[...] What attributes are matched to different cities throughout Europe Factors affecting travel destinations Industry Review Industry Review Irish student travel market is huge. In the 4th Quarter of 2003 there were approximately 196,700 students in Third level education between the ages of 18 and 24 alone The 3 major companies offering student travel services in Ireland are: USIT Ireland SAYIT Travel Go4Less Porter's Five Forces Porter's Five Forces Competitive Rivalry between Existing Players: High competitive rivalry between the existing players Majority of the players in the industry are of about the same size All connected to a parent organization Very little differentiation between products Thus, there is much price competition Low market growth rates Porter's Five Forces Bargaining Power of Customers: Bargaining power of students is between medium and high This is due to the competitive rivalry between the travel companies searching for the one niche market Competitors' offering is undifferentiated from that of any other travel company So price is their only weapon to attract students Threat of the internet increasing Porter's Five Forces Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low Due to the fact that there are so many suppliers in the market Switching costs are low amongst suppliers However, barriers to entry are quite low which can lead to increased pressures from suppliers in the relationships which in turn may reduce margins Porter's Five Forces Threat of Substitutes: Threat of substitutes is quite high Due to the advent of the internet Increasing amount of low fares airlines These options (e.g. [...]

[...] This has been developed by Hartigan and Johnson, both in the 1960's, and Carroll and Chang in the 1970's Assist the creation of better product offerings and better marketing campaigns for the different segments of the market E.g. [...]